


Tell Me

by roadtripexpert



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Bisexual Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Explanations, F/M, Family, Found Family, Gay Will Byers, I don't like Mike and it shows, I love Robin and it shows, Joyce Byers is to be protected by all costs, Kinda, Lucas and Max still being a mess, M/M, Meeting the Parents, Outsider's Perspective, Platonic Relationships, Queer Themes, Thanksgiving, Time Passing, are they more mature now?, around seven years of it, short answer: no, the scoops troop do roadtrips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2020-06-25 15:35:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19748656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roadtripexpert/pseuds/roadtripexpert
Summary: Will is bringing home his first serious boyfriend to traditional Thanksgiving at the Wheeler's. Alternative title: I give Will a boyfriend because I need him to be happy, goddamn it!





	Tell Me

**Author's Note:**

> I like the idea of an outsider's perspective on the strange little family that is the Stranger Things crew. This is set around seven years from the end of season 3.

“Are you sure you’re ready for me to meet the family?” Jake said as he shut the car door. Will had been nervous on their whole car ride up to Illinois, tapping his fingers on the dashboard and making comments about his life before New York, and art school, and Jacob.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.”

“I get it, small town, meeting the family.”

“Yeah. It’s just…weird…being back.”

“I can’t believe I’m the one comforting you, I’m meeting your mom for God’s sake!”

Will seemed to come back to himself, laughing, “Don’t worry, my mom’s going to love you.” Will looked at Jake with a tenderness that he still wasn’t used to. “I’m glad you’re meeting everyone.” Will had mentioned his weird family, and inner circle of friends from Hawkins. How his sister had been adopted first by a friend of his mother’s, and then by her when they were all fifteen. And she was dating Mike, and his brother was dating Nancy, Mike’s sister. Then there was Max, Lucas, Dustin, and maybe someone named Steve, but not really? He wasn’t sure, but he was rather proud of himself for keeping most of it straight.

Jake slung his arm over Will’s shoulder as they walked onto the Wheeler’s lawn. Will had explained that Thanksgiving was always in Hawkins, even after moving to Chicago. It was one of the only times everyone could get together—family friends, etc. A woman with big blonde hair opened the door, and immediately hugged Will and commented on how he looked so grown up, in a way an aunt would. Jake was guessing she was the hostess.

“Oh, how lovely to see you Will! Joyce is already here.” She led them into the hallway, Will closing the door behind them. “I hope the drive up wasn’t too bad.”

“No, not at all Mrs. Wheeler. Just a little traffic.”

“Well, welcome home Will, and nice to meet you…”

“Jake,” Jake supplied.

“Jake, Joyce has definitely mentioned that you were coming.”

Will face palmed. “Oh, God, has she been talking to everyone?”

“I’m afraid so. Anyway, your mom is in the kitchen, _trying_ to help, and your sister is with Mike in the basement, I think. They both just got here!”

She steered the two men into the kitchen where Joyce Byers was squinting at a cookbook and waving a spoon around in the air absentmindedly.

“Mom.” Will’s mom did not stop having a staring contest with the book. “Mom?”

She seemed to snap out of her reverie and turned to see Will. The look on her face almost shocked Jake, how much love and terror in equal measures, like she was never sure if she would see him again. It seemed like the kind of love that could smother a person.

“Will!” she said and launched herself into his arms. “I missed you!”

“Missed you too, Mom.”

She continued to squeeze him.

“Mom, I’ve got someone I’d like for you to meet.”

“Oh,” Joyce’s eyes shot open and she stared at Jake. “I almost forgot, how stupid of me!” She entangled herself from her son and gave Jake a quick embrace. “It’s so nice to finally meet you, Jake.”

In time he would learn to love Joyce Byers and the things she had done for Will. He would come to maybe ever fear her tenacity and strength, the terrifying intensity of her love. But in that moment, she was just his boyfriend’s mom, who had hugged him, and who would, for the rest of the night, refer to Will as “our boy”. It made him want to cry tears of joy.

Will had suggested that they leave El and Mike alone for at least another thirty minutes, with an eye-roll. Jake had never quite understood what Mike was to Will, but he was willing to let it be. They helped in the kitchen until the doorbell rang and Jake was charged with getting it.

The two people at the door stared at him. One of them looked a lot like Will.

“Hi, I’m Jake, Will’s boyfriend,” he said trying not to lean awkwardly on the doorway. “I was tasked with letting you in.”

The woman’s face lit up. “Oh, Jake! It’s so nice to meet you finally!” She extricated her hand from under the casserole she was holding the shake his. It was the most professional handhold he had ever felt. The man, who he assumed was Jonathan, eyed him up and down.

“Hey man.”

They walked into the house and Jake followed them, wondering how many more introductions he would be forced to make to intense women with firm grips.

Will turned and smiled as Jake came back into the kitchen, the kind that Jake cherished, where all the hurt in his eyes disappeared for just a moment. Then he turned back to a couple who were sitting on the counter holding hands. A very pretty brunet with long hair and a shy smile, and a gangly man with dark black hair. Mike and El, his brain supplied for him. They waved. El, enthusiastically, and Mike like Jonathan—weary. Mrs. Wheeler was cooing over a ring on Nancy’s finger that he had not known was new. He felt like he was trespassing on sacred ground—all these people who knew each other and loved each other across these two families. He placed himself next to Will and bumped him lightly, smiling a little, just so he would smile back.

“So, you’re Jacob.” Mike said, and Jake could already tell it was going to be hard to make Mike like him. El seemed to sense this too because she elbowed him and gave him a look.

“And you’re Mike.” He couldn’t resist it, but Will gave him a similar look. He tried again, cowed. “Nice to meet you, and you can call me Jake.”

“Okay, Jake, nice to meet you.” El gave him a look like: S _ee, that wasn’t too hard_.

“We’re happy that Will’s found someone.” Her voice was soft but had an undercurrent of something else, something like iron. She was also saying the thing that everyone else was thinking but not saying, Jake already liked her, a lot.

Max and Lucas arrived together from LA, although Jake was still not clear as to whether they were together or not. Will had been extremely vague, saying that they had been on-again off-again since high school. Max and El screamed when they saw each other and were immediately a puddle of limbs on the ground. Lucas explained that they were going over to his parents’ place for the actual meal but would be back for the after-party. Here he winked repeatedly while everyone told him that it was not, in fact, an after-party if it’s after thanksgiving and the only booze is mediocre wine. Max had to cover his face with both her hands to stop him from winking himself into oblivion. They both handled Jake with similar nods of the heads and a _Sup, dude_ from Lucas.

“Hey, where’s Dustin?” Will asked after a while of talking and helping prepare the food.

“With Steve and Robin, crazy road trip shenanigans, apparently they busted Suzie out of Mormon prison—even pulled Erica into it. She says they’ve been planning it for ages, since Suzie turned 18. But dude, you should have seen my mom’s face when she said what she’d be doing the summer before she goes to college. Anyway, they’re on their way, texted me like ten minutes ago.” Lucas answered. “I think they might be doing their own thing though, but they’ll definitely stop by.”

“Wait, _Suzie_ Suzie?” Max asked. She had returned to the floor, El lying next to her, making faces up at Mike.

“The very same.”

“Never-ending story Suzie?”

“How would there be any other Suzie?”

“How did you not tell me about this? And how are they even still together?”

“Now, _that_ is the question we should be asking ourselves.”

“God, I need them to show up.”

“You’re just saying that because you have a stupid crush on Robin.”

“Yeah, so? She’s super hot.”

“She’s too old for you!”

“Oh my God, it’s like four years! That doesn’t matter once you’re in your twenties!”

Jake looked on with growing confusion. “Wait, aren’t you guys like…together?”

“Open relationship,” they both said in a simultaneous monotone.

“Oh. Yeah, okay.”

“It doesn’t matter anyway,” continued Lucas, “because she’d never get with you!”

Jake turned to Will with a slightly scared grin. “This is crazy. Are your friends always this crazy? Because they’re crazy.”

Will turned to him with a laugh and nodded. Then he seemed to sober up a little bit. “The crazy thing is that you don’t even know…I haven’t told you the really crazy stuff yet.” He was looking at Jake as if asking for permission. It was terrifying. He kind of laughed and said something along the lines of “I bet you haven’t.” He saw Mike watching him out of the corner of his eye.

Suzie had indeed been sprung from Mormon prison, and Robin was indeed, smoking hot. Dustin looked at Jake with something like disbelief and then said, “Good for you man,” to Will. Steve, or who Jake would later learn was Steve came up to them and put a firm hand on Jake’s shoulder.

“I approve.”

“You haven’t even met him yet!”

“I trust your judgement, Byers.” He looked Jake up and down. “But if you hurt Will,” he punctuated this by letting go of Jake’s shoulder and tapping him on the chest. “I will be forced to fight you.”

“Okay, dingus,” the beautiful Robin said as she dragged Steve away. “No more shovel talks for you.” He only pretended to struggle, pointing at Jake. “I’ve won approximately half of the fights in my life. Be afraid!”

“Forty percent,” Robin corrected.

He conceded. “Forty percent of all the fights. Still, be afraid.”

Jake looked over at Will. “Did I just get the shovel talk from someone who’s not even related to you?”

“I find it best not to question it.”

Soon Lucas and Max were dragging Erica from where she had been talking to Nancy and Johnathon about politics and where she was going to go to college to go to Lucas’ place, and Dustin and the newly acquired Suzie were going to Dustin’s house. Robin and Steve were dispersing to their own families, all with the promise to be back soon, and to keep in touch.

The dinner was excellent, the conversation filled with references to things that Jake didn’t understand, and for the first time in a long time, Jake felt encompassed and accepted, even if he wasn’t necessarily part of the bigger picture, yet. He felt warm. He held hands with Will next to his plate and felt warm.

In the quite space after thanksgiving dinner, Nancy, Mrs. Wheeler, and Holly were enthusiastically brainstorming Nancy’s wedding in the living room, Mr. Wheeler was cleaning up dishes with Jonathan and Max had returned to hold El’s head in her lap and read to her the latest book in the series they both liked.

Jake wandered through the house looking for Will, who had gone to the bathroom. Jake wasn’t really looking for him actively though. He had only left because Joyce kept smiling at him, but it was a sad smile and it was putting him on edge. Then he heard Will’s voice from one of the closed doors. And then Mikes voice. They both sounded angry.

“ _Oh,”_ he thought, his stomach dropping.

“I don’t understand why you’ve always got to be so protective of everyone you love!” That was Will, through the door. “It’s not like it’s ever helped El, and it certainly hasn’t helped me.”

“You haven’t even told him yet! How stupid was it to bring him here when he doesn’t even know yet!”

“Not everything is about that! My life is my life now, Mike. So what, I’m not supposed to bring my boyfriend that I love to meet my mother?”

“If you love him so much than why haven’t you told him?”

“Oh my fucking God! It is so easy for you to say that, because you never had to explain shit to El, but you have to understand how much harder it is to just tell someone that!”

Jake nearly jumped a mile when someone tapped him on the shoulder.

“God! You scared the shit out of me,” he whispered, still terrified, as El nodded to the door.

“Fighting?”

He nodded. She sighed and tried the door. It was locked, she huffed and tried it again. This time it worked. Will and Mike were standing in the middle of a bedroom that had been turned into a study, maybe Mike’s old room, faces red from yelling. They whirled around at the sound of the door opening, like they had been caught doing something illicit. “Three inches, boys,” she said, amused with herself. Jake was too caught up in how scared Will looked to notice her attempt at humor.

Will put his face in his hands and mumbled, “How much did you hear?”

Jake took a deep breath, “You know I don’t actually care if you guys dated, right?”

The two men looked at each other, confused.

“Um…we didn’t,” supplied Will. “Big crush, but no…no dating.”

“You had a crush on me?” Mike looked pleased. El hit him on a head. “Ow! I’m just saying…”

“Yes, Mike, a big gay crush, can we move on? That is not what this is about.”

“Then what the fuck is this about then, Will, you’re scaring me.” His comment from earlier rattled around Jake’s head: _“I haven’t told you the really crazy stuff yet.”_

“I can move things with my mind.” El said it with such a calm, deadpan voice that at first Jake thought that maybe this was an elaborate prank, or that she had just felt like saying it to fuck with him. But then Mike threw up his hands like he was giving up saying, “Yeah, okay, for starters!” And Will still wouldn’t look him in the eye.

Max took that moment to pop her head in the room. “Hey guys, Mrs. Wheeler says the pie’s ready if you guys are…” She trailed off.

“Jesus, are you guys having the talk? Right now?”

Apparently, their silence answered her question because she asked, “Do you want me to get Jonathan and Nancy? Joyce? I mean we should probably wait till Lucas gets here so he won’t feel excluded.”

Jake’s mind was racing with explanations and questions: was it superpowers like El had said, or maybe something else? Was it something that just happened to Will or to all of them? His exclusion before, which held felt almost special before, a stranger being allowed to see the inner workings of their lives, now felt dangerous and terrifying. And again: had something happened to Will?

“Nobody is getting my mom.” Will said it like it was already true. “You’re all going to leave, and then me and my boyfriend are going to talk like adults, okay?”

Everyone was silent for a few tense seconds, then El said, “Okay,” before resting her hand gently on Will’s shoulder and grabbing Mike to take him out of the room. Max shrugged and left too, closing the door behind her.

“So, El has superpowers,” said Will after a while. He still wasn’t looking at Jake, but their hands were intertwined as they sat on the floor together. “And it gets worse from there,” he said the second part with a self-aware chuckle, and then finally looked Jake in the eyes. He was scared, God he was so scared. Jake reached out a touched his cheek, and he hoped his eyes looked open and trusting and good when he said, “Tell me.”


End file.
